Shops at Don Mills (redevelopment, Giannone Petricone/Pellow + Associates )

Anyone know what's happening with Don Mills Centre?
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Canadian shopping centres ponder 'lifestyle' format
BILL GRAVELAND
CP
Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The harsh Canadian winter that has most consumers scurrying indoors shouldn't be a deterrent to outdoor "lifestyle" shopping centres that are growing in popularity in the United States, a retail expert says.

There are now over 100 such centres in the U.S., which involve traditional big-box malls adding outdoor plazas, fountains and cafes to attract customers.

The open-air centres feature clusters of 20 to 30 upscale stores, each with an entrance along a "main street" with sidewalks and angle parking.

"You try to make a more livable place while you're there - you have food and coffee mixed in with retail uses, where there would be fountains and outside seating," said Bob Knight, who runs the retail division for Oxford Properties Group in Calgary, with shopping centres in B.C., Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Whether the lifestyle centre format is workable in Canada was the hot topic at the International Council of Shopping Centers' annual conference in Calgary this week.

"I'm probably about a 75 per cent believer in the concept and it would work in certain places," Knight said. "I would worry about doing it in Saskatchewan because it can get pretty cold," he said.

The first lifestyle centre in Canada opened last fall in affluent West Vancouver. The Village at Park Royal included a new-concept Home Depot store spread over two storeys with a heavy emphasis on decor.

Deerfoot Meadows in Calgary is considered the second such centre in Canada, with IKEA as the major tenant, but at this point is only about half completed, Knight said.

Don Mills Centre (redevelopment)

From City of Toronto, North York Community Council:

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2007/ny/bgrd/backgroundfile-2993.pdf

I am ambivalent about this - the proposal does reintroduce a form of street grid, but one can't deny the architectural value of the original mall (since demolished).

AoD

I'm also ambivalent about this. Introducing a street grid amidst a sea of cul de sac bungalows is not a particularly effective way to build an urban neighbourhood. It looks like it'll be a mall in disguise, though. A "lifestyle centre", sort of like the stuff that has become popular in the Sunbelt.

I doubt that they'll be as popular up here where, for half of the year, being outside can kill you.

Still, it's even more potential ridership for a Don Mills/DRL subway.

I'm not so sure an outdoor mall would really work in Toronto in the winter.

It certainly wouldn't hurt for this development to be built. I tend to see this development more as a mixed use town centre kind of development, along the lines of projects like Downtown Markham, than simply an American "lifestyle centre" or an "outdoor mall". I think this will be a successful development, supported by local residents, the people working along the Don Mills corridor, and the new residents who will be coming in with the new buildings on this site.

Can an "outdoor mall" like this work in the winter. Maybe not on its own, but perhaps it could work with attractions like ice rinks, hot chocolate, campfires, and ice sculptures.

Wasn't Don Mills Centre originally an outdoor mall anyways?

They could just build an actual neighbourhood with retail at the street level and residences above.

That might be too old fashioned.

Power centres are "outdoor malls" too in a way. Regrettably, they seem to be doing just fine as I'm sure this Don Mills Centre will do also.

It is taking a long time for this to come to fruition. This was first proposed a couple of years ago wasn't it?

but one can't deny the architectural value of the original mall (since demolished).

Click to expand...

Which was mostly extingushed through enclosure by the end of the 70s, anyway...

Last time I was at the mall they were busy closing stores...I haven't been by the area in a while during daylight hours - how far along is the reconstruction?

Some Don Mills locals were hostile to these plans when first proposed because the mall and surrounding area worked fine just the way they were, so why mess with them? Yeah, I know, it was enclosed in the 70s, but this proposal goes waaay beyond throwing up a roof or two. Until the redevelopment is finished, it'll be impossible to say if the changes are positive. It's all kind of a slippery slope - introducing a street grid or filling in the open spaces with condos will start chipping away at Don Mills' original character, and then McMansionizing the houses themselves (only a few isolated houses have been altered so far) or replacing the apartment blocks could be next.

The only doubts I have about this project is that the streetwall is on the Donway and Lawrence, but not Don Mills itself, the actual corridor that it *should* streetwall-ize

With the parking lots remaining on Don Mills, the developers are calling to drivers along that arterial with the siren song "you can still park your car here, come patronize us". If the majority of drivers-by couldn't see the parking lots, it would be game-over for the new lifestyle centre.
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Why bother streetwallizing one isolated stretch of Don Mills? Start tearing down the residential blocks and it's game over for Don Mills.